News from EPI ›Media Advisory: BBA and AASA Host Discussion on Groundbreaking New Race to the Top Report

September 5, 2013

On Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education (BBA) and AASA, The School Superintendents Association, will release a BBA new study and hold a panel discussion on the successes and failures of Race to the Top. The event will feature Daniel Domenech, executive director, AASA, Elaine Weiss, national coordinator, BBA, Noelle Ellerson, associate executive director, policy & advocacy, AASA, and University of California—Berkeley professor David Kirp.

The report, Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit EducationalImprovement, and the accompanying discussion will examine the implementation of Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s flagship education initiative. Has it produced the “game-changing” improvements proponents promised? Has it set states up to fail, as opponents claim? Or does the reality lie somewhere in between?

The report is the first to bring together all available information about Race to the Top, one year before grants are scheduled to end. It incorporates the perspectives of over two dozen states and local education leaders from three states which were awarded funding in 2010—including both Round 1 Race to the Top recipients, Delaware and Tennessee—and of district superintendents from across Race to the Top states. Weiss, Domenech, and Ellerson will then discuss the successes and challenges states have encountered, and key implications for education policy more broadly. Kirp will highlight alternative strategies for improving education, including examples of districts that have successfully enacted comprehensive, long-term approaches.

What: Panel discussion and release of new BBA report, Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement